TAT cards, varying in degree of aggressive 'pull', were given to a group of twenty adolescent schizophrenics and twenty neurotics and personality disorders. The stories that the patients developed around the aggression-arousing cards contained more manifestations of ego disturbance than stories told about cards judged low in aggressive 'pull'. Criteria of ego disturbance came from a long list including peculiar verbalization, slip of the tongue, confusion, incoherence, self-reference, and perception distortions. The study was felt to bear out Hartmann's assumption that schizophrenia is a consequence of failure of sufficient neutralization of aggressive drive energy. As a corollary, after the schizophrenic illness has developed, the degree of ego disturbance manifested will increase when the individual is confronted with stimuli possessing aggression-arousing properties. These findings were felt to apply to certain nonschizophrenics also.